Computed tomography (CT) imaging systems have become ubiquitous in the fields of medical diagnostics and treatment. CT systems typically include an X-ray source, such as a conventional X-ray tube, positioned in a diametrically opposed location from a detector. The source and detector rotate on a gantry, and the source produces beams of X-ray radiation that are directed through a subject of interest and impact the detector on the opposite side of the gantry. The emitted radiation is attenuated by features and structures of the subject, and the transmitted radiation is measured by the detector. Such CT systems use acquired data to reconstruct images of internal features of a variety of subjects, including human and animal patients in a medical diagnostic context, internal configurations and components of parts and parcels, and so forth.
Conventional CT systems rotate at increasingly high speeds to improve the resolution of the resulting reconstructed images. Such high speeds have increased the quantity of image data that is acquired during the CT scan. However, these high speed CT systems utilize slip rings to transfer data from the rotating gantry to permanent disk drives (or other memory circuits) located in a stationary computer. A slip ring includes multiple data lines for transferring the data from the detector and power lines to transfer the power. One or more brush blocks i.e. metal blocks may be in contact with the data lines and power lines of the slip ring while it rotates to transfer the detector data and transfer power to gantry and other CT parts. The brush block, which contains the Carbon brushes, remains stationary and the slip ring continues to rotate or vice versa and due to this constant contact there may be normal wear and tear that results in carbon dust accumulation on the slip ring. The slip ring needs to be periodically cleaned to remove the carbon dust. The service engineer opens the CT machine to access the slip ring and then manually cleans the slip ring which is a tedious task. During the cleaning process the slip ring will be stationary. The cleaning process also takes time and accessing the slip ring also may be difficult. Thus there is a need for an improved system for cleaning the slip ring.